Guardians of the Fleet
by Cranston
Summary: Can't say much here, as it'll ruin the surprise. Basically, Xander, Faith, Dawn and Vi go to another reality to help some people out. Once there, they find some surprisingly familiar faces...


Sorry, not an proper update. Looking over the characters contained within the prophecy made me realise that this particular combination would make it far to easy for the Galactica, so, I've changed the prophecy.

In case it's not as obvious as I think it is, I do not own any of the characters or settings portrayed within this piece of fiction, nor do I in any way profit through its dissemination.

Rupert Giles sat at his desk staring blankly ahead. Since he and the other survivors of the Battle of Sunnydale had begun the arduous task of re-building the Council he'd been forced to spend his time on the bureaucracy, rather than the direct opposition of the forces of darkness.

There were some exceptions though. Any prophecy thought to pertain to the former 'Scoobies' went straight to his desk for emergency analysis. Most appeared to reference events already past and he damned the 'Old Guard' for not sharing them at the time when they might have helped. This one though, it was clearly yet-to-be, and it referenced some of the Council's core and those close to his heart. He read it through again;

_Beyond the ken of the witch tree in the deepest dark,_

_Humanity's hope is bleak indeed, to this needs must you hark._

_The Fall of the colonies two and ten shall herald a new Age._

_Should the Star of Galactic Battle soldier on, all will be lost._

_Only in flight, should new allies appear to aid them._

_The One Who Sees to guide them all. The Dark Slayer for redemption. The Key to open the path. The Red Slayer for friendship. All four of the deep sea, they will know them and more._

_The four Renegades; Commander and Master of the X. The Warrior without a home. The Prankster of unerring aim. The Dour one, with loyalty unending. They will Guard._

_The Amazing man. Woman of Steel and Man. The Insect of Navy. The Mourning Lady Hawk. Bear the flotilla with fortitude will they._

_The Twice Dead Captain. The Doctor of Deep Space. The Pretend Man. The Stolen slave-girl set free. These shall compass them._

_The Copy of Anansi's Totem. The peoples Shield. The hourglass woman of red. The reborn Bird of War. All will fortify them._

_The Sergeant of Brown. The Comrade loyal and composed. The Clean Pilot. The Mercenary. The Herder of the Flock. The Intuitive Engineer. The Gentle Lady of Experience. The Beloved Sister. The Dedicated Doctor. They will enliven them._

_The Legend to champion. The Damned to guard. The Earl to inspire. The Slayer to reap. Protectors of the weak._

_Still more will appear to aid humanity's flight;_

_The Grecian Warrior's Successor, clad in Norse myth, accompanied by the sprite of blue._

_The resurrected embodiment of Justice. _

_He who is anybody save himself. _

_The Adventuress of the Catacombs. _

_The guardian Cook. _

_The gun-shy tinkerer. _

_A female Ghost in a body of artifice. _

_Space's Officer of the Law's Castle. _

_The charmed Unknown._

_Distrusted by those they would help and heedless of the danger, these heroes all._

_They shall give the fleeing peoples both hope and aid in the challenges to come._

_So Say We All._

Giles removed his glasses, rubbed his eyes and sighed deeply. Fingering his office's intercom he spoke to his secretary.

"Allison, would you be so good as to have Central Dispatch recall Blue Team to headquarters. I have something they need to see."

"Yes Mr Giles." Replied his far too chirpy secretary. Oh well, it could be worse. For two weeks he'd had Andrew Well's of all people following him like a lost puppy! But the constant correctness of it all. He actually missed those infernal monikers which his surrogate children insisted on foisting on him! 'G'. 'Giles'. 'Watcher-Man'. Hell, even that accursed 'G-Man' of Xander's!

As head of the Council and senior Watcher, he'd have to start research on the entire prophecy soon, but for now the first identified group were his concern.

The One Who Sees. Alexander 'Xander' Harris.

The Dark Slayer. Faith LeHane.

The Key. Dawn Summers.

The Red Slayer. Vivienne 'Vi' Andrews.

Collectively known as Blue Team for their successes in the field. 'All of the deep sea' – colour of deep sea navy, navy is a shade of blue…

Giles sighed once more as his intercom buzzed.

"Yes?" he inquired.

"Mr Giles, Central Dispatch can't contact Blue Team and their GPU has gone off the grid! They've notified Ms. Rosenberg and The Slayer and are awaiting instructions."

-_How odd, even with the activation of hundreds of Slayers, Buffy remains 'The Slayer', probably now and forever.-_ mused Giles to himself.

"If Willow is unsuccessful in locating them…" '_Beyond the ken of the witch tree_' "…please suggest that both she and Buffy join me here, would you Allison."

"Yes sir, and Central Dispatch?"

"Have them 'borrow' a ground surveillance satellite and search their last known location. Also, check the logs to see how long they've been out of contact and check if there was a satellite overhead at the time." Ordered Giles.

"Very good Mr Giles." Allison closed the connection.

Giles stood, groaning as he stretched out the kinks in his back. As he turned to the window, his thoughts immediately drifted to the lost Blue Team, but especially to its leader.

-_Xander my boy, I hope that you return to us post-haste from _the deepest dark_. So many of us will be distracted until you do. Good Luck.-_

As Xander looked up into the barrels of several handguns, all, he noticed, leveled at him; a single thought sped through his mind. –_Whoever would have thought that Sunnydale was the shallow end of the pool?_-

That's it for now. Obviously we have the Buffy verse, but I'm curious as to how many other specific individuals you guys can identify (There's a whole lot there!). To make things a tad easier for you, most of the paragraphs in the prophecy refer to four members of a different series/movie/book etc. (Star Wars – DC Comics – Star Trek – Marvel Comics and David Gemmell's Drenai series in order. The other paragraph is another Joss Whedon Series.) while everyone post 'Others shall aid' is a single character from somewhere else. If anyone gets them all, well, they get a pat on the head from me.


End file.
